Kids in East Harlem (El Barrio) were in great need of physical activity programing and safe places to play. Alex Sabater and Deborah Quinones wanted to change that so they teamed up to create Young Bucks Sports, a non-profit aimed at preventing childhood obesity through teaching the sport and tradition of stickball to youth. Now Young Bucks Sports offers multiple activities to youth in Harlem for free, including: a summer stickball institute, pop-up playgrounds, a march to prevent obesity, and an annual festival with activities aimed at preventing obesity in the community.
The Physical Inactivity and Obesity Crisis
Awareness: Alex Sabater loves stickball and loves to share the same with others in New York City (NYC). The game is a modified version of baseball that uses a ...
Summer is here. Do you know what your child is drinking at summer camp? The American Camp Association (ACA), the country's leading camp resource and accreditation group, requires camps to take many steps to ensure the safety and well-being of young people. They also offer suggestions on how camps can help kids be active and eat healthy foods. But ACA does NOT require camps to have a healthy beverage policy to gain accreditation. That means, for the more than 2,400 ACA-accredited camps nationwide, none are required to refrain from serving campers sugary sodas, juices, or flavored milk. Research shows many kids already consume more sugary drinks on average (see video), so they have more to lose when camps recruit families and then provide unhealthy sugary drinks during this ...
During the school day, lunch time is a chance for busy students to take a break, relax with friends, and refuel. Refueling with healthy foods and drinks is vital. At two high schools in the Chicago suburbs, a concerned school board member saw a disconnect between the emphasis on healthy eating at lunch and the large sugary drink selection in cafeterias. The concern turned into a semester-long discussion between students, food services managers, and administrators that resulted in a new beverage policy for the school district that reduced the number of unhealthy drinks and marketed healthy ones in creative ways.
The Issue of Sugary Drinks
Awareness/Learn: The Latino student population is small—but rapidly growing—at Glenbrook High School District 225, which is commonly known as ...
Estrella Hernandez grew up in San Antonio, a predominantly Hispanic (63.2%) city with a 28.5% rate of obesity in its population of over 1.3 million people. When she was in middle school she began to take a look around her city and found that there was a big problem with obesity and overweight, especially with kids her age. She knew that there had to be a way to get her classmates and peers to become healthier, while still having fun. Estrella came up with the idea of an interactive mobile app she titled WeWalk, which combined active living, healthy eating, and gaming. As she worked with members of the San Antonio community she began to discover that together as a city they could change the obesity epidemic while having fun through exercise.
The Problem of Physical ...
Counselors at New Britain High School were concerned about the future of teens who were not passing PE and risked not graduating. Fortunately, a local nonprofit taught a group of teens how to take photos and use them to inspire action—a technique called photovoice. Their efforts helped unite the nonprofit, the New Britain YWCA, and New Britain High School, who together pushed to establish an after-school PE credit recovery program. Now, girls are getting the physical education they need to lead a healthy lifestyle, and the ongoing collaboration between community organizations has led to the development of a new hub for health called The House of Teens (HOT).
Examining the Health of the Local Community
Awareness/Learn: The 37% Latino town of New Britain, Conn., was struggling ...
When Cecil Whisenton of San Antonio, Texas, transitioned his career from the restaurant industry to the installation of healthy vending machines, he learned of the tremendous burden of obesity across the country. So, in his work with HUMAN Healthy Vending—a Los-Angeles-based company that has franchisees working to place healthy vending machines across the country—Whisenton brought the machines to local YMCAs and a San Antonio high school. He hopes to bring the healthy vending machines to more schools in the future to give kids healthier snack and drink options earlier in life. He believes schools facing the pending changes under the USDA’s Smart Snacks standards can turn to companies like Human Vending to redesign the snacking for students.
The Problem of Unhealthy School ...
Lonnie Sclerandi, a Spanish teacher and soccer coach at Austin Independent School District, downsized his home a few years ago and no longer had land for a garden for fresh produce. He asked his school principal if he could plant a small garden outside the portable building where he taught. The principal said, "Yes." Sclerandi then researched online about what produce would be seasonal for central Texas, and how to cultivate a garden in the area. He bought gardening tools and seeds with his own money, and got started. He tended the garden for a year. Then his students started to ask him what he was doing—which eventually grew a cool new healthy change.
How the Garden Started
Food service leaders at Austin Independent School District (AISD), which is about 60% ...
In Tulare County, many people work for little pay on large farms in California’s fertile Central Valley. Some of these families aren’t getting proper nutrition, leading to diet-related conditions, like obesity and diabetes. When the local food bank revamped their nutrition policy to encourage more fresh produce donations, Sarah Ramirez, a local health leader used her hard-earned knowledge and passion to support that policy, and implemented a creative way to get the valley’s extra fruits and veggies into the hands of those who need them.
The Problem of Unhealthy Food in the Community
Awareness: In Tulare County in California’s fertile Central Valley, fresh produce grows all over the place. But for many area residents, this healthy produce doesn’t end up on their ...
Jeff Anderson, a parent at Wolftrap Elementary School in Fairfax, Va., wanted his daughter to bike to school. Unfortunately, the school had no bike racks. He went to the principal and the school installed bike racks. But he did more than ask for bike racks. Anderson joined other parents, school officials, and community partners to improve one of the school district’s transportation policies. Now parents from all over the community have created safe routes for kids to walk and bike to district schools.
The Issue of a Lack of Safe Places to Play
Awareness: In Spring 2008, Jeff Anderson noticed that there were no bike racks at Wolftrap Elementary School in Vienna, Va., a city with a 12% Latino population. An avid bicyclist, Anderson wanted his then-first-grade daughter to learn ...
